cover image Shadow Man: A Charlie Moon Mystery

Shadow Man: A Charlie Moon Mystery

James D. Doss, . . St. Martin's Minotaur, $23.95 (326pp) ISBN 978-0-312-34053-7

In Doss's highly entertaining 10th Charlie Moon mystery (after 2004's The Witch's Tongue ), the rancher and Ute tribal investigator takes on his most unlovable client, orthodontist Manfred Wilhelm Blinkoe. The "mildly eccentric" Blinkoe insists that an assassin was aiming at him instead of the actual murder victim, a local attorney, shot at an upscale Granite Creek, Colo., restaurant. Tribal shaman Daisy Perika, Moon's crotchety aunt, becomes a target even as her otherworldly visions point her to more deaths connected with Charlie's client. When Blinkoe's boat is blown to smithereens, his beautiful blonde wife is naturally a suspect, but her husband's past and present life give plenty of other people motive for wanting him dead. Big money, big gambles and a surprise ending will keep readers turning the pages. Agent, Richard Henshaw . (Oct.)